<p>two young men from my Ds HS- amazing guys- who would have done really well at stanford- had all the STATS, recs, personalities, etc</p>
<p>rejected- Stanford missed out bigtime- UCLA and BROWN benifitted and the guys- never looked back</p>
<p>graciousness in “winning” is just something some people lack, while gracisouness in “losing” can be seen in abundance on this thread</p>
<p>graciousness in losing seems to be prevalent among some on this board too (cookiemon?)…</p>
<p>Indeed. I’m going to repeat something I said on another thread - </p>
<p>I would recommend that admitted students consider what it says about their character when they imply that they are morally or otherwise superior to those who were not admitted. While my daughter had the good fortune to be admitted, I would be embarassed, and ashamed of her, if she adopted this attitude. It’s misguided and mistaken.</p>
<p>Getting a favorable admissions decision means you had some worthy accomplishments that, in the context of building an overall class with many different skills, interests and talents, qualified you to be included - that’s it, no more and no less. Anyone who thinks it is a vindication of their moral or intellectual superiority or general specialness has some serious maturing yet to do.</p>
<p>I think there is a bit of luck involved- the mood of the reader that day, how many kids similar to you that were looked at in the same pile, if they had a 'quota" that day, say a non official- Hey I need to accept 2 of these 6</p>
<p>non of that implies that the accepted applicants weren’t worthy, not at all, but it does suggest that those NOT accepted were also worthy, maybe on a different day, they might have been accepted, who is to know</p>
<p>yes, indeed. I know many cases where a student was admitted at Stanford but denied at Harvard, MIT, Yale, etc and vice versa as well. If you’re unhooked, there’s a considerable degree of randomness to the outcome. Which is why I keep repeating - don’t fall in love with any college till after you are admitted, and apply to enough of your target colleges that your odds are basically additive, after making sure your app is the best it can be.</p>
<p>Things will look different in April for many students who are disappointed today, if they act on that basis.</p>
<p>my conflict is more with the practice of AA, though my earlier posts were indeed not gracious (that can’t be worded right), it might have been after reading post after post of people with fewer qualifications than others (ahem, Asians, ahem) who got accepted. That is where my irritation comes from. Now and twenty years from now, I will still believe that AA is wrong. Look, AA was established to promote other races to participate and have equal opportunity in white-dominated colleges/jobs/careers. Now, though the world is not perfect, there is a trend towards tolerance. If AA is done away with, there is a growing motivation among URMs and women to reach for higher goals. Additionally, admissions has also become more tolerant (especially since it looks to find URMs) that URMs won’t be dealt a disadvantage because of their race. I realize that if there is one name like yutsuke and another one like , i dunno, eugene mcbride or something, admissions will be able to notice the difference in ethnicity (not in all cases) of the applicants. AA has accomplished its goal, but it is becoming a detrimental tool now and should be done away with.</p>
<p>btw, citygirlsmom/bp9, for all you know, those two boys could have anonymously posted angry posts on CC under some alias. I know a few people will say “oh, that girl was rejected by Stanford, but she’s never looked back, how gracious” about me, but that’s just because I don’t talk about this with them. Its not like I’m fuming to people close to me 24/7 (prb. because they also don’t agree with AA too), its just that I found people on this thread who have strong opinions, as I do. If keeping quiet about it is being gracious, then call me whatever you want. congrats to those people who worked hard and did whatever to get in, but i’m criticizing stanford’s policy, not the people who got in.</p>
<p>^AA may be wrong when applied to applicants of different qualifications who were given the exact same opportunities, but that is not always the case. a hispanic kid with a 2100 sat seems less qualified than an asian kid with a 2350, and if the former gets accepted surely you will blame aa, but maybe the hispanic kid didnt have the opportunities in spanish harlem that the asian kid had in orange county. obviously this is just one example im not trying to generalize here; what im trying to say is dont pretend you know everything about an applicant by what they post on cc, at least dont pretend to know enough to imply that they got in b/c they were black/hispanic/whatever or got rejected for being white or asian.
sorry u got rejected- but dont tell us they rejected u only to accept the underqualified minorities</p>
<p>honestly, no one really knows why someone got rejected, except the adcom. It could be luck, AA, or whatever, that’s not the point. In the previous posts, it was mentioned that tough situations come out in the essays and other parts of the application. I, however, ready many posts of people who are just like “hooks: none really, no special circumstances” but are URM. In case you couldn’t read my previous post, i’m not criticizing people who did overcome adversities and were accepted to Stanford, it’s AA that worries/irritates me. Try this, how about a hispanic kid and an asian kid with a 2300, which one are most people inclined to admit? the hispanic one. why? AA.</p>
<p>very well said Ailey, I totally agree with what you are saying.</p>
<p>And cookiemon90, its obvious that your statements are not products of rational thinking; rather you are just bitter. I personally worked just as hard as everyone else here to get in, regardless of my race. Did aa play a role? I’m sure it did, but its not the only reason i got in. I worked my butt off to get to this stage of my life, and for you to make those comments just undermines my accomplishments…</p>
<p>but eh, it doesn’t bother me. nothing really can right now!</p>
<p>“I worked my butt off to get to this stage of my life, and for you to make those comments just undermines my accomplishments…” </p>
<p>hey pal, so did I. It’s not irrational to believe that AA is wrong, btw. Sure AA might not be the only reason you and people like you got in, but that doesn’t mean that other people (who were rejected/deferred) didn’t work harder than you. Turn the situation around, and if you were rejected largely because AA was working against you and helping me. If after all that work, you began to realize that you might have been rejected because of your race.</p>
<p>people might not have been accepted on race, according to you, but people were certainly rejected on race.</p>
<p>[editing-out-message-I-posted]</p>
<p>Cookiemon90 wrote: “people might not have been accepted on race, according to you, but people were certainly rejected on race.”</p>
<p>How do you know that people were rejected based on race? You make very vehement assertions about AA that reflect a worrisome sense of entitlement. Are you that certain that but for AA you would have been admitted to Stanford?</p>
<p>At my son 's school, most of the students admitted to Stanford have been Asian (Indian, Korean, Chinese,Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and Pakistani). Not all were the top students in the school (scores/GPA), but each had achieved recognized excellence in a particular area (published novelist, cancer research, journalism, poetry, computer science, and gymnastics).</p>
<p>Have you achieved this degree of excellence? Did you adequately convey to Stanford what you would bring to the educational community? Apart from being a high achieving student, how you would add to the excellence of the university?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s pretty ridiculous.</p>
<p>“Did you adequately convey to Stanford what you would bring to the educational community?”</p>
<p>yes.</p>
<p>as for
"people might not have been accepted on race, according to you, but people were certainly rejected on race. "</p>
<p>look at posters on CC. its anecdotal, but these are still humans whose lives are important. can you honestly say it is so ridiculous?</p>
<p>like mentioned before, all the stereotypes surrounding Asians are coming out, people are showing their true colors. not all “white” people are rednecks, and not all Asians are number crunching nerds</p>
<p>Are you that certain that but for AA you would have been admitted to Stanford?
no, i think you’re missing my point. i’m saying in GENERAL (is that big enough?)</p>
<p>I agree with you cookiemon90. </p>
<p>AA is racist (fact) and by attempting to justify it, you only bring out your own racism. I’m not saying everything else on my app except my race was perfect, but NONE of the 20+ extremely qualified asians at my school who have excellent stats and ECs and actually do have passion (yes asians can have passions - we are human you know) were accepted early. That is just not fair. And a “life’s not fair get over it” attitude is not going to change the fact that this is RACISM. And if you still don’t see anything wrong with that, you have some serious moral issues.</p>
<p>I can honestly say it is ridiculous to claim that they are “rejected on race.” Do you honestly believe that the first thing the admissions officer is looking at is race, and as soon as he sees “Asian” the folder goes into “rejects” pile???</p>
<p>Maybe there are just too many applicants with no butts left…it’s not like Stanford can take everyone who is qualified…class size, unfortunately, is limited.</p>
<p>Every time I say something which attempts to explain my beliefs, I am immediately accused of being pro-AA. For the record: </p>
<p>I DO NOT BELIEVE ADMISSION DECISIONS SHOULD BE BASED ON RACE AND
I DO NOT SUPPORT AA !!! </p>
<p>However, I DO believe your status as a first generation college student, low income, need to work, or WHATEVER, as well as the absence/presence of resources available to you, should ALL be considered.</p>
<p>I do not think any of us really knows why s/he was rejected, accepted or deferred (except maybe recruited athletes), but I still cannot believe people are rejected SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR RACE.</p>
<p>cookiemon90: “look at posters on CC. its anecdotal, but these are still humans whose lives are important. can you honestly say it is so ridiculous?”</p>
<p>Of course I realize that the CC posters are human beings whose lives are important, and that they are reacting to a painful rejection, perhaps the first major rejection in their lives. They all appear to be sensitive, bright, dedicated and talented. But, as you note, the cases on CC are anecdotal and the information concerning who is rejected, admitted, deferred and why, is woefully incomplete. It is impossible to draw accurate conclusions as to how Stanford made its decisions. Perhaps you have a compelling argument, but the data is not available to justify the accusations you make. </p>
<p>Instead of dwelling on Stanford’s decision making process, students should be regrouping and preparing their next set of applications.When my daughter’s two best friends (both Indian) were rejected by Stanford two years ago, they were shocked and mourned the loss of a long held dream for a couple of days, but then they picked themselves up and moved on. A few months later they had forgotten Stanford in the excitement of their acceptances at Yale and Princeton.</p>